A user on 4chan appeared to post about Jeffrey Epstein’s death 38 minutes before the news became public — and the FBI later tried to find out how.
At 8:16 a.m. on August 10, 2019, an anonymous user on 4chan wrote that Epstein had died in jail. At the time, there had been no official announcement. The post came before a report by ABC News journalist Aaron Katersky and before major outlets confirmed the news.
Jeffrey Epstein was being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. He was later found dead in his cell. His death was ruled a suicide.
Newly released Justice Department files show the FBI subpoenaed 4chan just four days after the post. Investigators asked for IP address records linked to the anonymous account in an attempt to identify the user.
4chan provided the IP data. Prosecutors then issued subpoenas to telecom companies including AT&T and T-Mobile. But AT&T said it did not keep records that connect dynamic IP addresses to specific users. The trail went cold, and the author was never identified.
The anonymous poster made four messages in total. In replies to other users, the person used medical terms and claimed details about Epstein’s treatment. Some of the posts also mentioned early conspiracy theories about his death.
The issue later came up in the criminal case against two jail guards, Tova Noel and Michael Thomas, who were accused of falsifying records the night Epstein died. Prosecutors later dropped those charges. In court filings, officials confirmed they still did not know who made the 4chan post.
Government records also show that Epstein once met Christopher Poole, the founder of 4chan, in 2011. Poole later said he regretted ever meeting him and expressed sympathy for Epstein’s victims.
Despite the investigation, the mystery of how the 4chan user appeared to know about Epstein’s death before the public remains unsolved.
Follow on Google News
